Headache (cont.)

Benjamin Wedro, MD, FACEP, FAAEM

Dr. Ben Wedro practices emergency medicine at Gundersen Clinic, a regional trauma center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. His background includes undergraduate and medical studies at the University of Alberta, a Family Practice internship at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and residency training in Emergency Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Jay W. Marks, MD

Jay W. Marks, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

What are primary headaches?

Primary headaches include migraine, tension, and cluster headaches, as well as a variety of other less common types of headache.

Tension headaches are the most common type of primary headache. Tension headaches occur more commonly among women than men. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 20 people in the developed world suffer with a daily tension headache.

Migraine headaches are the second most common type of primary headache.
Migraine headaches affect children as well as adults. Before puberty, boys and
girls are affected equally by migraine headaches, but after puberty, more women
than men are affected.

Cluster headaches are a rare type of primary headache. It more commonly affects men in their late 20s though women and children can also suffer this type of headache.

Primary headaches can affect the quality of life. Some people have occasional headaches that resolve quickly while others are debilitated. While these headaches are not life-threatening, they may be associated with symptoms that can mimic strokes.

Many patients equate severe headache with migraine, but the amount of pain does not determine the diagnosis of migraine. A full discussion of migraine headaches can be found in this article.

What are secondary headaches?

Secondary headaches are those that are due to an underlying structural problem in the head or neck. This is a very broad group of medical conditions ranging from dental pain from infected teeth to pain from an infected sinus, to life-threatening conditions like bleeding in the brain or infections like encephalitis or meningitis.

Traumatic headaches fall into this category including post-concussion headaches.

This group of headaches also includes those headaches associated with substance abuse and excess use of medications used to treat headaches (rebound headaches).